BBC presenter reveals she was groped live on-air while pregnant

Darts player claims it was "nothing more than a friendly slap on the bottom"

A Scottish darts player, believed to be the mystery man at the centre of a groping scandal has denied a popular UK presenter's version of events, saying it was "a friendly slap on the bottom".

It comes after BBC personality Helen Skelton spoke for the first time about the "really awkward" 2014 incident, when she was groped during a live TV interview, while she was pregnant.

"Basically, this guy grabbed me on the a**e when I was presenting live telly," the presenter said of the moment, during an interview with The Telegraph, published Friday.

"I felt really awkward about it. I was pregnant at the time as well. I didn’t really know what to do."

BBC presenter Helen Skelton has revealed she was groped during a live TV interview while pregnant (Getty)

While the now mother-of-two refused to name the person in question or the show she was presenting for, video has since emerged of what appears to be Ross Montgomery touching Helen's derierre live on BT Sport, at the BDO World Darts Championship in Hampshire.

"She wasn’t groped. It was nothing more than a friendly slap on the bottom," he told Mail Online, adding he was spoken to at the time and apologised, adding: " she didn’t make a big deal of it".

Montgomery also said: "Using the word grope, that’s a bit much. My wife was in the crowd and it wasn’t a grope."

Ross Montgomery, a Scottish darts player, is believed to be the mystery man at the centre or Helen's claims but says it wasn't a grope (Getty)

The 34-year-old sports presenter said she didn't raise the issue at first because she didn't want to be that person but praised her co-host Colin Murray for raising the issue.

"It’s intimidating and you don’t want to be the person who is being difficult and awkward. That’s just the culture that television breeds. No one wants to be difficult. You want to bring solutions, not problems. We are all ‘happy, happy…’,” she told The Telegraph.

"[Colin] kicked off and said that needs dealing with," she recalled.

The 2014 incident took place when the now mother-of-two was pregnant with her first child (Getty)

"It was handled brilliantly because of that. I’d never thought about complaining. I don’t want it to become my identity. The man in question was punished. There was a line drawn under it, and that was that."

The incident took place in 2014, while Helen was pregnant with her first son - Ernie, now two - with her rugby league hubby Richie Myler.

Having spent the past 11 years on British TV screens, working across children's TV, lifestyle shows and the BBC's Rio Olympics coverage, Helen also touched on the gender pay gap issue in what she calls "an inherently unfair industry."

"We have to be very careful that this doesn’t become a winging old boring argument. It needs to remain relevant. We need to – and I know this sounds awful… – keep the argument sexy. We have to keep it in the public eye."